Behind Bars: Inside Ontario's Heritage Gaols.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Brown is well-known for his several books that tell the story behind Ontario’s ghost towns. Behind Bars continues in that tradition, pinpointing the locations and telling the stories of 50 Ontario jail buildings that have survived from pre-1900. From the province’s largest cities to its smallest villages, he has winkled out these structures and brought to life the central roles they played as our society developed.

As the province was settled and came of age, a three-tier jail structure emerged. At the top were the massive federal penitentiaries for criminals serving long sentences. At the grassroots level were small lock-ups; most villages had one. In between were the county jails, provincially mandated before an area could be granted county status. In this survey Brown profiles 27 county jails, three “big house” federal pens, and 20 local lock-ups. He includes the oldest surviving jail (L’Orignal, 1825), the many contenders for the title of smallest jail, and the architecturally notable, such as Goderich’s octagon, now a tourist attraction. For each, the text describes the architecture and building materials, gives significant dates, mentions current usage, and notes any features such as isolation cells, exercise (“airing”) yards, gallows, stocks/pillories, latrines, and medical facilities. If applicable, the existence of a courthouse, governor’s residence, and turnkey’s living quarters is noted. There’s a black and white photo of each of the 50 buildings.

The book is much more than an inventory of buildings. It’s what took place in those buildings that adds vivid brushstrokes to the portrait of life in 19th-century Ontario. Public hangings that drew huge crowds, for example. Of course, along with those charged with murder, assault, and theft, the jails were places for the drunk and disorderly. They also housed those charged with offences such as speeding (by horse and buggy), allowing cattle to roam, vagrancy (sometimes a euphemism for prostitution), or leaving an apprenticeship. The incarcerated were of both sexes and any age: there are records of a boy of 12 and a girl of 6 being locked up. Often jails were used to shelter those whose only offence was being poor. Convicts were sometimes rented out to factories as cheap labour.

Staffing the jails could be a challenge, too. One constable recaptured an escapee by hurling eggs at him until he surrendered. Another, perhaps overworked, simply left the lock-up unlocked so the detainees could discharge themselves when sober enough to do so.

The book does much to bring Ontario social history to life and promote the preservation of these unique heritage buildings.